Luker Chocolate

We wanted more variety, refined taste and guarantee of ethical standards. In our search we discovered Luker Chocolate from Colombia.

 

Getting to the Heart of Chocolate:

Quality

• Luker offers refined taste and more variety, especially in the dark chocolates.
• Internationally Certified as Cacao Fino De Aroma, a specialty cocoa that applied to only 8% of the chocolate produced world wide.
• Cacao is native to Latin America and Colombia has the diverse soils and tropical climate to optimize the finest varieties
• Natural rich flavour of the coca mean less processing at the roasting stage
• More Cacao and less sugar. 

Single Origin

• This means the chocolate we use here in Courtenay can be traced right back to the Cocoa grower. 
• Knowing the grower creates a relationship of committed quality and cycle of success.
• Several levels of quality analysis can be carried out at every stage of growth and production to ensure consistency of flavour.
• Following the value chain back to the source guarantees transparency at all levels. 

Sustainability

• Production, community and customer satisfaction are all equally important.
• Constant innovation is fundamental to continually improve at every level. 
• Environmentalists, local and national government, entrepreneurs, scientists and NGO’s from around the world come to learn and share in the Luker development.
• Sharing the knowledge allows more communities to grow and flourish

Read More: Luker Chocolates Beyond Sustainability

Why choose Luker?

Established since 1906, Luker has created programs to develop the production of fine cacao as a sustainable, quality product that not only serves the buyer but the grower as well.

• Colombia rates second in the world for biodiversity but deforestation and industry have been degrading the ecology
• Luker has developed systems of agroforestry that allow the cultivation of cacao amongst native plants and trees
• This process is bringing back a sustainable ecosystem that provides habitat to hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife
• Through ongoing research and innovation the goal is to re-establish a natural environment where coca grows in balance with nature.

Ethically Grown:

Putting Heart in Your Chocolate

• Luker provides education to farmers who want to transition to cocoa crops.
• Over the years thousands to families have been able to transition from the illicit coca (cocaine) production into a safer and sustainable way of life.
• Success is dependent on a thriving community and so the Luker Foundation provide school funding food programs and cultural development
• Luker provides the infrastructure for local farmers to succeed and in turn they create a quality chocolate

Melina Trees 

• A vital part of the Agroforestry system helping to bring biodiversity back to the farmland
• Create high canopy for birds and monkeys
• Shade for the cocoa trees
• Shedding leaves provide mulch on the ground and nutrients to the soil
• Tree roots help prevent water run off and erosion
• Fast growing provides wood for fermenting boxes and other structures. 

How is Chocolate Made?

Follow the Cocoa Path…

1. Sprouted cocoa seeds need 4 weeks before being planted in the ground. 
2. The new cocoa tree needs at least 3 years before it will bear fruit.
3. When ripe, the cocoa pods are cut from the tree, one by one. 
4. Cocoa Pods are cut open to remove the seed and while fleshy pulp that surrounds them.
5. Now the cocoa beans are put into wooden vats where the while pulp will naturally start a fermentation process. This is a crucial point in developing the subtle flavours of the cocoa.
6. At just the right point the seeds are then laid out on large drying racks in the hot sun. The heat stops the fermentation and dries the beans in a slow natural roast. 
7. Once dry the beans are bagged and sent off to the production plant is Bogota
8. The nibs are ground and reground and ground again forming a thick paste called Cocoa liquor. (Not to be mistaken for English word liquor, this paste contains no alcohol.)
9. The ‘Liquor’ is compressed to separate the “mass” from the cocoa butter. 

Now the chocolate can be made!

• Dark Chocolate
• Cocoa liquor with sugar & vanilla
• Milk Chocolate
• Cocoa liquor with cocoa butter, milk solids, & sugar
• White Chocolate
• Cocoa butter, with milk solids, & sugar (no liquor)

And then it’s shipped here to Courtenay and around the globe. 

Learn more about Luker Chocolate